‘How could they say that?’ Paula Fox denies husband Lindsay has dementia amid tension over family empire
Paula Fox has defended her trucking magnate husband, vowing to find out “what is going on” with their eldest son, who it has been announced will retire.
The matriarch of the billionaire Fox family has expressed anger at what she says are false suggestions that husband Lindsay Fox has dementia and can’t make significant decisions about his multibillion-dollar logistics empire.
Paula Fox spoke to this masthead from Paris to vehemently defend the trucking magnate, vowing to find out “what is going on” with eldest son Peter Fox, who it was announced on Wednesday would not return as Linfox executive chairman after a lengthy sabbatical.
Paula Fox said that Peter had done no work for seven months and the desire for new leadership was a family decision.
She denied that Lindsay Fox, 89, no longer had the mental acuity to make corporate decisions, and said a Herald Sun story saying so, sourced to a “family friend”, was false and planted by someone close to Peter.
“He might forget little things, but Lindsay went to work the other day and negotiated a deal for $100 million. How could they say that?” Paula Fox asked.
Paula Fox said her husband’s only significant health issue was difficulties with his legs, which caused him to use a wheelchair occasionally. The couple married in 1959 and have five living children and 17 grandchildren.
“He is not on any medication for dementia. I know because I do his pills every day,” said Paula Fox, who was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in January for her services to health and other philanthropic work.
“He is 89 years old. Sure, he forgets things. I forget things. Of course we do.
“I think we need to talk to Peter and find out what is going on and [who is] feeding the media. I think it is one particular person,” she said, without disclosing the identity of that person.
The remarks provide an astonishing insight into tensions within one of Australia’s richest, most influential, private and philanthropic families.
Tensions between the Fox sons is longstanding. Younger brothers Andrew and David Fox, also Linfox board directors, respectively run the Linfox Property Group, which owns the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, and Linfox Airports, which controls Melbourne’s Avalon and Essendon Fields airports.
Peter Fox was executive chairman of the logistics arm of the business his father founded as a trucking company 70 years ago, which is the main source of Lindsay Fox’s $5.7 billion fortune.
An email to staff announced Peter Fox was retiring from his role and the family would “embark on a new governance model, beginning with the appointment of independent chairs for operational businesses”.
Paula Fox said that her eldest son, who is 63, had endured his own h
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